Foxtel today announced that it has exceeded its own plans for Closed Captioning across its subscription TV channels. Foxtel currently captions 94 of its subscription TV channels. The news arrives just as hearing awareness week has taken full swing and illustrates the importance Foxtel places on ensuring its broadcast content is easily accessible to the widest possible audience.

Foxtel’s commitment to Closed Captioning stands above and beyond what is required by government regulations and its latest efforts not only provided captioning in excess of the legislative requirements, but also exceeded Foxtel’s own captioning target for a significant number of channels.

Foxtel reports that ninety-nine percent of all channels captioned now exceed the Government’s plan with thirty of Foxtel’s channels captioned at a rate of more than ninety percent of all content, while five channels currently sit at one-hundred percent full captioning.

Bruce Meagher, Group Director of Corporate Affairs, Foxtel, said, “Hearing loss affects 1 in 5 Australians and, by 2050, it is projected to rise to 1 in 4. Foxtel’s deaf and hard of hearing subscribers rely on Closed Captions to fully enjoy Foxtel’s high quality and diverse Australian and international content. Foxtel’s commitment to Closed Captioning across a broad range of channels available on its broadcast platform promotes inclusion and accessibility for as many Australians as possible and we’re proud to announce that our most recent efforts have more than exceeded not only legislative requirements, but the significant bar we set for ourselves.”

Alex Varley, CEO, Media Access Australia, added, “It is really great to see Foxtel delivering above the captioning requirements and offering a serious option for caption users. I also applaud the new presentation on the website showing how much captioning is available on each channel. Grouping this information into different packages and genres is a transparent way to allow people to make easy, informed choices.”

Foxtel launched its Closed Captioning Service in October 2004 which coincided with its migration to digital services. Its commitment to captioning its service over and above legislative requirements has been recognised by the 2014 Deafness Forum of Australia Captioning Awards where Foxtel won the TV Captioning Award for its Foxtel Anytime (broadcast pay-per-view movies) service.